Monthly Archives: February 2012

The Dream of One’s Life

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Here is a nice little promotional video by mythologist Michael Meade for his book, Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of the Soul. I am not yet familiar with that book, but I have read his book The Water of Life and the anthology of poetry that he edited with Robert Bly and James Hillman.  I have also heard Meade speak. He is an engaging storyteller and his work is well worth knowing.

Some take away quotes from the video:

"The question isn't, 'Do I have a calling?'  The question is,  'Have I heard it?'"

"One of our key responsibilities in life -- separate from career, separate from family, separate from anything else -- is to live out [our] dream, to respond to [our] calling, and to unfold our life from within."

Here is the video:

Follow Your Bliss

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Here is a video of David Kudler, publishing director of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, remembering the impact of the Power of Myth series with Campbell and Bill Moyers. Kudler reminds us that there was a time when the phrase "Follow Your Bliss" was not found on anyone's refrigerator. It is a reminder of the deep value of the idea of following your bliss, which is not an easy path but rather a challenging and rewarding journey.

As I often point out in my talks on How To Hear Your Calling, Campbell is not talking about basking in the glow of pain-free, trouble-free happiness and light.  His formula was not “dwell in your bliss”, but “follow your bliss,” that is, risk the adventure of following the call of your deepest self.

Looking into the future

The Value of Limits

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Image courtesy of graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net I read a lovely passage on the value of limitations, written by Parker Palmer. As someone who tends to be a bit of a puer (the eternal youth), I can easily dream of infinite possibilities, but struggle with the down-to-earth finite practicalities, which are born of limitation. […]

Happiness, Success, and the Soul

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Positive Psychology is an approach to psychology that seeks to understand what factors are at work in healthy states. It seeks to make a scientific understanding of things like happiness, taking the position that happiness is not the absence of unhappiness, but a positive state that can be cultivated and increased. Recently I was directed […]

“We Are The Great Danger”

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This quote showed up several times in my Twitter feed recently: “The only thing we have to fear on this planet is man.” ~ C.G. Jung This was a frequent theme for Jung later in his life, particularly after having witnessed the horrors of the first and second world wars. Here is a clip of […]

Metaphors Light Up The Brain

Imagination and the Brain

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There is a report of an interesting study on Psych Central about how metaphors are processed in the brain. The main point is that when someone hears a metaphor with a textural quality,  the parietal operculum,  the region of the brain that senses texture through touch, is activated . This is an interesting study for depth psychology for, as […]

A Few Words on the Soul

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Wislawa Szymborska, a Nobel-prize winning Polish poet, died yesterday at the age of 88. Her poems were lovely — both simple and profound.This is one of my favorites:    A Few Words on the Soul  We have a soul at times.No one’s got it non-stop,for keeps.Day after day,year after yearmay pass without it.Sometimesit will settle for awhileonly in […]